Brain States Quotes

If music serves to convey feelings through the interaction of physical gestures and sound, the musician needs his brain state to match the emotional state he is trying to express. Although the studies haven't been performed yet, I'm willing to bet that when B.B. King is playing the blues and when he is feeling the blues, the neural signatures are very similar. (Of course there will be differences, too, and part of the scientific hurdle will be subtracting out the processes involved in issuing motor commands and listening to music, versus just sitting on a chair, head in hands, and feeling down.) And as listeners, there is every reason to believe that some of our brain states will match those of the musicians we are listening to. ~ Daniel J. Levitin

There will always be some delay between the first neuropsychological events that kindle my next conscious thought and the thought itself. And even if they weren't - even if all mental states were truly coincident with their underlying brain states - I cannot decide what I will next think or intend until a thought or intention arises. What will my next mental state be? I do not know - it just happens. Where is the freedom in that? ~ Sam Harris

All human states are organic brain states - happiness, sadness, fear, lust, dreaming, doing math problems and writing novels - and our brains are not static. ~ Siri Hustvedt

Genetics, accidents of birth or events in early childhood have left criminals' brains and bodies with measurable flaws predisposing them to committing assault, murder and other antisocial acts ...
Many offenders also have impairments in their autonomic nervous system, the system responsible for the edgy, nervous feeling that can come with emotional arousal. This leads to a fearless, risk-taking personality, perhaps to compensate for chronic under-arousal.
Many convicted criminals, like the Unabomber, have slow heartbeats.
It also gives them lower heart rates, which explains why heart rate is such a good predictor of criminal tendencies. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, for example, had a resting heart rate of just 54 beats per minute, which put him in the bottom 3 per cent of the population. ~ Adrian Raine

The human brain, it has been said, is the most complexly organised structure in the universe and to appreciate this you just have to look at some numbers. The brain is made up of one hundred billion nerve cells or "neurons" which is the basic structural and functional units of the nervous system. Each neuron makes something like a thousand to ten thousand contacts with other neurons and these points of contact are called synapses where exchange of information occurs. And based on this information, someone has calculated that the number of possible permutations and combinations of brain activity, in other words the numbers of brain states, exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe. ~ V.S. Ramachandran

She meant I was hungover. I had been slaughtered, legless, trolleyed, slashed, shredded, plastered, polluted, pissed. I thought, I do love my country's relationship with alcohol. How would I ever exist in the United States? I suppose I would have grief counselling instead. (77) ~ Peter Carey

We are fortunate to have collectively built a culture that matters, a brand that matters, a business that matters. It is impossible to state in words how much this team means to me, how much Hulu means to me. ~ Jason Kilar

The Chinese military budget today is officially listed as, I think, about $15 billion. But even if you double it, that's only a tenth of ours. So the possibility of China challenging the United States for the next ten years over the Pacific is next to zero. There could be a conflict between us and China over Taiwan, but I think that, too, will not occur with the proper policies on both sides. ~ Henry A. Kissinger

In the present state of the world, it is evident that the control we have gained of physical energies, heat, light, electricity, etc., without having first secured control of our use of ourselves is a perilous affair. Without the control of our use of ourselves, our use of other things is blind; it may lead to anything. ~ John Dewey

Yet reason frowns in war's unequal game,
Where wasted nations raise a single name;
And mortgag'd states their grandsire's wreaths regret,
From age to age in everlasting debt;
Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey
To rust on medals, or on stones decay. ~ Samuel Johnson

I am confident that someday in the future The Rock, who was once a professional wrestler, will run for president of the United States, and I think that he will win. I have seen with my own eyes the power of The Rock. The Rock is a uniter, not a divider. When the BOP showed Walking Tall, the turnout for every screening all weekend long was unprecedented. The Rock has an effect on women that transcends divisions of race, age, cultural background - even social class, the most impenetrable barrier in America. Black, white, Spanish, old, young, all women are hot for The Rock. Even the lesbians agreed that he was mighty easy on the eyes. ~ Piper Kerman

The bottom line is that kids with too much power feel unsafe. Children with too much influence often become anxious because they feel like they have to control their environment, and they really don't know how. This stress triggers a cascade of toxic neurochemistry. Creating situations in which a child's developing brain is consistently bathed in the stress hormone cortisol is not a wise parenting move. ~ Robin Berman

You have to get it in your brain that you don't belong to yourself as an actor, but that you belong to the director who creates the character. ~ Anne Parillaud

Writing quotes is physiotherapy for the brain. ~ Steven Magee

One of the greatest concerns that I had when I became President was the vast array of nuclear weapons in the arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union and a few other countries, and also the great proliferation of conventional weapons, non-nuclear weapons, particularly as a tremendous burden on the economies of developing or very poor countries. ~ Jimmy Carter

A moment from another world! Imagine a reporter dictating an exclusive story, a lead story, sourced from the President of the United States, from a telephone just off the White House dance floor to the strains of Lester Lanin's dance band. ~ Ben Bradlee

Every threat to an endogroup results in increased violence towards its own weakest members, the negative image. All externally directed atrocities eventually come home to roost, including genocide. ~ Heather Marsh

There's more single-family homes rented in the United States then there are apartments. ~ Barry Sternlicht

Your brain is your greatest weapon. Connect it to your heart, and you can go anywhere. ~ Angelique Kidjo

Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly. ~ Spencer W. Kimball

Happiness isn't a state, it's a skill. It's the skill of knowing how to take what life throws your way and make the most of it. ~ Gary Null

Belief is the natural state of things. It is the default option. We just believe. We believe all sorts of things. Belief is natural; disbelief, skepticism, science, is not natural. ~ Michael Shermer

Days are slow, but years are racing fast.
No matter how hard I try, my life is not going to last.

My social circle is becoming thinner.
Even after so many wins, why don't I feel like a winner?

When I look at myself in the mirror,
I see an elderly staring at me with horror.

So much remains untold, but my brain is losing its hold.
Now that I have become so old, being alive is what I behold. ~ Shon Mehta

The insides of my brain are a fading photograph, stories and images drifting away to places unknown. Leaving patches of nothingness where a name or an event or a location should be. Anyone ~ Shonda Rhimes

For the United States to be a global leader, we have to have a very tight relationship with Europe. And we've held that relationship since 1949 when we established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. NATO is the bond. It's a security bond. ~ Wesley Clark

My father was missing some very important meeting, and my stepmother from Oz? I'm sure she was missing her brain. ~ Katie McGarry

If you want to pray at a town hall meeting or a school board meeting or in the halls of Congress, that ought to be acceptable in the United States. ~ Tim Walberg

The plain fact is that this country and other industrial countries are deeply dependent on animal exploitation to sustain their present economic structures. The plain fact is that we are more dependent on animal exploitation than were the states of the southern United States on human slavery ... . So, although there are more people concerned about animals and the environment, little progress has been made because those who profit from animal exploitation and the government that exists to serve their interests have a lot to lose and are not budging - not an inch. ~ Gary L. Francione

Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) was a profoundly important analysis of human states of mind - a kind of early philosophical/ psychological study. He sees 'melancholy' as part of the human condition, especially love melancholy and religious melancholy. His concerns are remarkably close to those which Shakespeare explores in his plays. Ambition, for example, Burton describes as 'a proud covetousness or a dry thirst of Honour, a great torture of the mind, composed of envy, pride and covetousness, a gallant madness' - words which could well be applied to Macbeth. ~ Ronald Carter

More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That's how much I love you.
I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.
As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea,
Or a juggler hates a shove,
As a hostess detests unexpected guests,
That's how much you I love.
I love you more than a wasp can sting,
And more than the subway jerks,
I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch,
And more than a hangnail irks.
I swear to you by the stars above,
And below, if such there be,
As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes,
That's how you're loved by me. ~ Ogden Nash

Authenticity is not possible without embracing the "and" within us. Our minds like to categorize things into neatly labeled boxes. Am I right, or is she right? Let's stretch our minds to I can be right and so can she. Embracing the "and" is like yoga for the brain. When we train ourselves to hold paradoxes by stretching ourselves out of the boxes our minds create, we stretch into new possibilities and adapt more quickly in a fast-changing world. ~ Henna Inam

My philosophy is really based on humility. I don't think we know enough to fix either diagnostics or therapeutics. The future of psychiatry is clinical neuroscience, based on a much deeper understanding of the brain. ~ Thomas R. Insel

The United States government will not tolerate any disrespect for the holy Koran. What form our government's intolerance will take remains unspecified. I await a knock on the door. ~ Sam Harris

Money is not an invention of the state. It is not the product of a legislative act. Even the sanction of political authority is not necessary for its existence. Certain commodities came to be money quite naturally, as the result of economic relationships that were independent of the power of the state. ~ Carl Menger

For me it's the instrument. If I want to think of a flute and the state of the arts I hear a vibrato; I don't know what a flute is unless the person plays it for me. ~ Morton Feldman

Consciousness is somehow a by-product of the simultaneous, high frequency firing of neurons in different parts of the brain. It's the meshing of these frequencies that generates consciousness, just as tones from individual instruments produce the rich, complex, & seamless sounds of a symphony orchestra ~ Francis Crick

Major international interventions are doomed unless the US is directly or indirectly involved. But if American politicians, officials and servicemen are to be put at risk of arrest and prosecution, the United States will be most reluctant to act in order to curb aggression or prevent genocide. So the effect of the court may well be to diminish, not increase, the numbers of (in the words of the UN Secretary General) 'innocents of distant wars and conflicts'. ~ Margaret Thatcher

Would you accept "slackers by hand and brain"?' said Ridcully, always happy to see how far he could go. 'Slackers by hand and brain by statute,' said the Senior Wrangler primly. Ridcully gave up. He could do this all day, but life couldn't be all fun. ~ Terry Pratchett

The best state for human nature is that in which, while no one is poor, no one desires to be richer, nor has any reason to fear from thrust back, by the efforts of others to push themselves forward. ~ John Stuart Mill

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville